TO THE EDITOR:
I applaud Ms. Migliara for her stated commitment to celebrating color, life and different cultures as a student here at UNC. But I’d encourage her to more thoroughly investigate the background of Holi, “Hinduism” and India in general before making assertions that are flagrantly incorrect.
Insofar as “Hinduism” is a single unified concept, an “-ism”, or even a religion at all, it certainly can tolerate a few politically linked events.
I can assure Migliara that the vast tract of indigenous Indian rituals, literature, arts, philosophy and scientific treatises — stretching back in some cases more than 5,000 years — won’t suffer from any links to an event called Holi Moli, no more than they suffered from links to ethnic cleansing upon India’s partition, or to human history’s largest and most methodically applied system of social apartheid, the caste system.
No matter how patently ridiculous Holi Moli’s trappings may be, and no matter how foolishly its organizers chose to name, market and brand their event, Migliara can rest assured that any “political cloud” over this “religious celebration” exists entirely in the realm of her own imagination.
Abhinav Komandur ’12
School of Public Health
